Class performance and mark distribution
The Overview tab on an assessment is your starting point for understanding how your class did. This article walks through what’s on it and what each part is telling you.
Getting to the Overview tab
Open any assessment with at least one marked submission and click the Overview tab. (The tab doesn’t appear until you’ve marked at least one submission — there’s nothing to summarise before then.)
The class-performance section sits below the written class summary. It’s available on any active plan or free trial. On a top-up-only balance it’s locked behind an Upgrade to unlock panel — see What’s included on your plan.
The metric cards
Across the top of the class-performance section you’ll see four at-a-glance numbers:
- Median — the middle mark in the class
- Mean — the average across all marked submissions
- Pass rate — the share of submissions at or above your pass threshold
- Std dev — how spread out marks are around the mean (shown in percentage points)
Use these for the quick “how did we do” gut check. Median and mean together tell you whether a few very high or very low marks are skewing the average; a large standard deviation means the class was spread out.
The mark distribution chart
A histogram showing how your marked submissions are spread across 10-point bands (0–10%, 10–20%, and so on).
Things to look for:
- A tight cluster suggests the assessment was well-pitched
- A wide spread can mean it differentiated well — or that the marking criteria varied a lot
- A bimodal shape (two peaks) often means some students got the underlying concept and others didn’t — worth following up
The chart is a single colour and shows the shape of the marks. It isn’t shaded by your pass threshold — the threshold drives the pass-rate metric and the students-needing-support list instead (see below).
Question difficulty
Alongside the distribution, the Overview shows a Question difficulty chart — the average percentage scored on each question. Low bars flag the questions your class struggled with most. For the full table, open the Questions tab.
The pass threshold control
Next to the class-performance heading you’ll see your current pass mark shown as ≥ 50% (or whatever you’ve set). Click Edit to open a dialog, type a pass mark from 0 to 100, and click Save. The server recalculates every pass-based number — the pass rate, the students-needing-support list, pass/fail badges, and per-question pass rates all update.
Your pass threshold is saved per assessment, so it’s there next time you open the Overview. See Pass threshold and how it affects insights for the detail.
Students needing support
To the side of the chart you’ll see a Students needing support list — every student who scored below your pass threshold, ordered from lowest mark upward. Each row shows their mark and a percentage badge.
Click a student’s name to open their progress chart — their marks across recent assessments — so you can see whether this result is a one-off or part of a pattern. For the full history, open their student detail page.
If everyone scored at or above the threshold, you’ll see an “Everyone passed” message instead.
Cross-referencing
For the why behind the numbers — which questions hurt the class, what common mistakes students made — jump to the Question-by-question analysis and Misconceptions report tabs.
Need help?
Open the Account menu and choose Chat to a human, ask Marko, or email connect@marking.ai.
FAQs
Why doesn’t the Overview tab show?
It only appears once you’ve marked at least one submission. As soon as you have, the tab will be there.
Do the numbers update as I edit marks?
They reflect your marks at the point the tab loads. If you change a mark elsewhere, reload the Overview to see the metrics and chart recalculate.
Can I export the chart?
Indirectly — the distribution appears in the Class summary PDF. See Exporting a class summary.